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Is it Time to eliminate
County government?
July 5, 2009
County governments in Michigan have the weakest directives for providing citizen support. Charter Counties have a self-imposed charter. The Cabinet Counties, Barry County, Berrien County, Branch County, Calhoun County, Cass County, Eaton County, Ingham County, Jackson County, Livingston County, and Van Buren County were all created (1829) and named to persuade President Jackson in hope of winning the Toledo Wars; a border war with Ohio over the Toledo area. The only responsibilities mandated to counties, other than the a locally created Charter are individual acts of legislation dealing with specific issues.
There is no specific legislation which mandates an area wishing to become a county shall follow. Primarily it is assumed that deeds, birth and deaths records, county roads, and protection are part of the duties, as well as elections. Geographically such designations are useful; but, where is the real need for county government in today's world?
Would it not be more logical to consider creating municipal and rural districts with appropriate responsibilities?
As an example, if we take the service area of Quad County News (a service of this Foundation), Ingham, Eaton, Clinton, and Jackson and split this area into two distinct governmental bodies. Municipal District One would comprise of Lansing, East Lansing, and Jackson. Other townships, or cities can join by vote of the citizens. Rural District One would comprise of the four counties except the cities mentioned and those who vote to join.
The governmental group for Municipal District One would comprise of elected individuals overseeing issues pertaining to cities. Rural District One would comprise of elected individuals dealing rural issues. Where similar issues arise, co-operatives can be established through joint agreements and volunteer commissions. Other Districts may be formed from other parts of the state that have commonality in serving the public. Grand Rapids could create a Municipal District two and a Rural District two.
The districts would replace the county governments and all consideration of county duties, other than geographically, would cease to exist. Would it not be prudent to have these four counties work together, either as a rural district or a municipal district dealing with roads, protection, elections, education, records, and the economy? There are enough difference between rural and city as to cause conflict of resources. A city often saps the revenues from rural and leaves limited ability to deal with rural needs. Cities feel that rural takes too many resources that are needed to manage cities.
The worst case example is Detroit, Michigan. There is Detroit and then there is out-state Michigan. The needs of Detroit often harm the rest of the State. The Upper Peninsula could still claim it is the last remaining victim of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The citizens of the Upper Peninsula should not be considered outcast cousins of the rest of the state. They may consider creating a single District containing all of the U. P. Think of all the redundancy removed from the budget. Their ability to influence the State Legislature would become enormous.
The goal is to streamline redundant government while providing services that are actually needed to the citizens who pay the bills and do the work in this Great State of Michigan. As for Rural District One, there would be only one sherif and sherif administration dealing with protection. Jails would be reduced and those remaining would expand. The deputy count would stay approximately the same without having four human resource departments. The cities could still operate their own local police and administrations. The backup ability for cities and townships could be enormous for emergencies while reducing overall cost to the tax payer.
Is it time to consider eliminating county government and replace it with districts which deal with like-kind issues? We might even take one of two of the key elected officials who actually did something and elect them to be a district commissioner. Sometimes the waste in government is the government itself.
Copyright 2009 Wall of News